Chapter 642: Infighting and Finishers (1/2)

Zac quickly pieced together the puzzle of his Bloodline Talent as he ran behind the Anointed and the demons in their mad dash away from the section with a weakened spatial barrier. The battle just now had given him a crash-course on the effect of [Force of the Void]; it appeared to be some sort of energy reserve hidden in the Void, one that allowed for instantaneous attacks.

It somewhat answered one of the big question marks in his mind. He had absorbed thousands of tons of Memorysteel along with the energy from a huge number of treasure caves, yet there was relatively little to show for it. Now Zac was rather suspecting that all that energy went into setting up this hidden pocket in his body.

At least he suspected that it was a hidden pocket. He still didn't have perfect control over his new bloodline, but it didn't feel like the energy was inside his body. He should have sensed it if that was the case, more than just the slight sense of hollowness after activating [Nature's Punishment].

That feeling was also a clear indication that this effect was limited. Zac guessed that this hidden energy source had a certain amount of energy reserves, and he would go back to normal Cosmic Energy consumption after that reserve was exhausted. He wasn't exactly sure how to refill that source though. His body was still full of energy since he hadn't wasted any of his own during the battle, but he didn't feel any drain or absorption at all where the [Force of the Void] was restocked.

Did it perhaps need some specific energy source to be refilled? It shouldn't be, since the skills he activated felt pretty much the same as before, except for the ancient aura that his skills emitted.

Another possibility was that it wasn't an actual energy pocket, but rather him connecting to the energy of the Void. The sense of hollowness would then be exhaustion from forming the bridge to the other realm. He was still fuzzy about how it actually worked, but what was more important right now was what kind of benefits it could provide.

And it was huge.

The more he thought about it the more excited Zac became. Instantaneous skill activation was massive, especially at higher grades. He had tried to improve his battle techniques lately after his disappointing battle with Void’s Disciple, though the events in the Mystic Realm had generally taken precedence.

However, he remembered one short exposition on battle-theory he had bought through Calrin. It was written by a D-grade pugilist, and Zac had hoped it would give him insights into dealing with Void’s Disciple. The D-Grade hegemon hadn't covered how to deal with pugilists, but he had still provided a lot of insight. The master essentially divided his fighting style into two types of actions; infighting and finishers.

He argued that F-Grade battles were just children launching finishers at each other, with no skill or technique. But such a battle-style wouldn’t work as people rose through the ranks. People at D-grade would be able to move miles in an instant and launch a dozen attacks in the blink of an eye. They were also a lot more sensitive to Cosmic Energy, and would usually be able to sense skill activations and instantaneously react. Massive skills that required preparation and charging would create lethal openings if you activated them without thought.

Infighting and cheap skills weren’t meant to break through the defenses and kill your enemies, but rather to whittle them down and tire them out so that you could create an opening. Only then would you unleash your ultimate skills. Overwhelm the opposition, seize the rhythm, finish them in one move. That the optimal combat tactic according to the pugilist.

Zac could easily understand the theory. For example, at lower levels his skill [Deforestation] was pretty overpowering, causing wide swathes of destruction. However, a skill like that would quickly lose its efficacy at higher levels, and not only because of limited energy.

Someone at late or peak E-Grade wouldn’t just stand around and watch that wave of destruction come washing over them. Someone that powerful would be able to move hundreds of meters in a second even without a movement skill, and they would simply move out of the way. Or rather, they might launch a counter-strike during the short instant when Zac gathered the energy to summon the enormous axes.

Doing something like that at F-Grade was nigh-impossible, but a peak E-Grade warrior definitely had the skill and insight to launch a quick precision strike that could disrupt the skill activation.

This theory of infighting and finishers pretty much held true for most combat classes, not just melee fighters such as himself. First, get the upper hand one way or another, force them into a passive state, and finally finish them off. There were of course a million ways to create an opening. Take the Second Elder of the Cartava Clan, for example.

He first restrained Zac with an array, then hid his true move by conjuring ten clones. He had seized the rhythm and made it impossible for Zac to counter while he prepared his finisher while hidden underground. Zac had thankfully been able to ruin the schemes with sheer force and some shamelessness, but he wouldn't always be so lucky in the future.

But his bloodline seemed to turn that simple system on his head.

Even an energy-hungry skill like [Nature’s Punishment] had been activated without warning in an instant. There were not even any energy traces in his body from the activation, the hand had just suddenly appeared out of the crack in space. It had grabbed the three tentacles almost before Zac had finished his mental command.

What if that had been a pitched melee-battle? Zac and his enemy could be standing in a lock with their weapons, only for the poor bastard to be smashed by a five-meter fist out of nowhere. A bloodline talent like this opened a whole new world of possibilities for him. It might even be more valuable than becoming a cultivator provided he learned to make the most of this ability.

Certainly, there were some limitations to the talent. Zac guessed that he could draw an amount equivalent to 18% of his normal Cosmic Energy stores, based on the number in the bloodline panel. That would track with his experiences as well. [Chop] barely cost any cosmic energy at all, but [Nature's Punishment] cost him around 8 to 9% of his Cosmic Energy by this point.

Another fractal blade appeared out of nowhere, confirming that the ability remained even with the sense of hollowness. He conjured and discarded a dozen edges in rapid succession, at which point he could confirm that the sense of emptiness got a bit stronger. Figuring out how to remove that feeling would require some time and experimentation though.

There were a lot of other questions that needed to be solved as well, but Zac sighed when he saw that reality was quickly catching up to him. He had been running for over ten minutes by now, and it was clear that the Collector had given up by this point. The others had realized the same thing, but that didn’t mean the situation was resolved.

There was still the issue of the strangers who had escaped from the two vessels. They had all rushed in the same direction as the people of Port Atwood, and they currently found themselves surrounded by his army. They didn’t try to break out though, but rather just stood their ground in somber silence.

Zac wasn’t too surprised the natives seemed fine with being surrounded considering that they had actively chosen to run together with his people. Perhaps it was because he saved them, or perhaps because they wanted to look for sanctuary. After all, there were just over one hundred left of them, and they probably had no idea about the situation on the mountain.

A furry beastkin turned toward Zac as he approached, and Zac realized that he was actually a monkeyman with silver fur. He reminded Zac of the almost human-like Stone Monkey Ogras had thrown through the incursion, but the cultivator in front of him was obviously a lot stronger. However, his late E-grade aura was quite weak and unstable, and he was missing large spots of furs where nasty burns could be seen.

He wasn’t the only one, most of the more powerful warriors seemed to sport these kinds of wounds. The injuries were at least a day old, so it looked like these people had been in pitched battle even before reaching the Memorysteel mountain. Zac couldn’t sense any Dao from the wounds though, no matter if he used [Cosmic Gaze] or [Primal Polyglot] for clues.